Plant will help H.B.

The construction of the Huntington Beach Seawater Desalination Facility is clearly in the best interest of the city and its residents. Here are the facts:

1. The project will produce more than % $2 million annually in tax revenue, new revenue the city can use for general fund needs like parks, street repair and police and fire services.

2. No taxpayer money will be spent constructing the project, and it will create 950 jobs during construction and more than 300 direct and indirect permanent jobs, helping our local economy.

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3. The city will directly receive at least 3 million gallons per day of water from the desalination plant under a fixed price, long-term contract, and the city will have the first right to millions of gallons of additional water during an emergency.

4. The desalination plant will reuse the AES power plant’s seawater intake and outfall pipes — which have been in use for half a century — and avoid having to build new facilities that destroy our beaches or coastal ecosystem.

5. The Huntington Beach Seawater Desalination Facility was just honored by OC Metro as one of the top environmental projects in Orange County ("2010 Green Team") and will be the most technologically advanced and energy efficient seawater desalination facility in the Western Hemisphere.

This desalination facility makes Huntington Beach and Orange County more self-reliant by giving us a new high-quality drinking water supply. It’s the type of public-private partnership that California should be embracing to help solve our future infrastructure needs.

As I stood in line for a movieSaturday, an old man in a uniform passed through. He didn’t make eye contact with anyone as he slowly walked toward what I guessed was a ceremony at the Bella Terramall. Nobody seemed to notice him.

My heart broke just a little bit for him and all of those who served. My arm wanted to reach out and tap him on the shoulder and thank him, but I didn’t move. I didn’t have the guts to even speak to him.

Maybe I should have gone to a Memorial Day event, but going to an event like this would make me a "spectacle." I would cry and draw attention to myself. You see, my daughter enlisted in the U.S. Navy last year. In a few months, she may be in the Gulf. The horrors she may have to endure are something I don’t even want to ponder. Each day, I think about the day that might come when one more soul — maybe my little girl — will come home in a box.

I want that little old man, and all of the others like him, to know that what they have done was not taken lightly. I haven’t forgotten them or those who never came home. I don’t have the intestinal fortitude to face the reality of losing someone.

Maybe I should have gone to a memorial service anyway. I won’t. Not right now, anyway. Instead, I will pray very hard that she will come home to us, in one piece, and proud she served our country.